Did anyone watch the documentary/film on channel 4 last week, The Dark Horse: The Dream Alliance Story? I was totally amazed by this - apologies if this was very old news, but I was taking a bit of a hiatus from horse racing from late 90's to late 0's so hadn't heard of this story. Basically a bunch of Welsh villagers bought a mare out of a field for 300 quid, mated her with an unknown stud stallion for 3 grand, raised the colt in their allotment then sent to Philip Hobbs to be trained as a NH horse. No one was laughing when he won the Welsh National! There is a lot more to it, and if you didn't see it, I thoroughly recommend you find it on catch-up or download, Netflix or what have you
Yes, I recorded it and actually watched it last night. I thought it was a great documentary and it is a really uplifting tale. I particularly liked the way the syndicate reacted when he suffered the serious injury at Aintree and they had to decide whether to spend the £20K on stem cell surgery. Real people with real emotions. Stories like this and Coneygree are the things that make NH racing what it is.
Thanks for posting this Reebs. Found it on catch up and watched it this evening. What a marvellous story, really uplifting. I do remember the story at the time but this really brought home the scale of their achievements. Had a dig around the interweb and found a report that the lass has bred another foal last year. The sire of this one won the German Derby. She reckons same approach as with Dream Alliance. 18 months on the allotment and then off to Phillip Hobb's for training. Syndicate members will have to fork out £15 a week this time round though rather than the tenner a week for Dream Alliance. They'll probably target the Gold Cup at those prices!
Snap Chaninbar, as the latest movies on sky were rubbish I remembered this being mentioned. Enjoyed it very much, thanks reebs for bringing it up. Loved the member turning up at Newbury with his beers and sandwiches.
